Vator Splash Competition

February 2010

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CEOs and/or founders of 10 companies, chosen by their peers and vetted by judges, will have the opportunity to present onstage and give a three-minute pitch in front of some 300 business professionals, comprising of executives from startups and large companies, angel investors, VCs, and media.

We are excited to announce that Vator is holding its inaugural Vator Splash event to find up-and-coming, early-stage startups to present at the Vator Splash event on February 4, 2010 at Cafe du Nord in San Francisco.

Vator, a leading platform for innovators and entrepreneurs to broadcast themselves, and a provider of news and information through VatorNews, is looking to recognize and film promising startups across technology, including digital media, social media, consumer Internet, software, SaaS, iPhone apps, mobile, etc.

What you win:

The top 10 companies have the opportunity to give a three-minute presentation onstage, and get a professionally-produced video of the presentation.

Complimentary membership from PR Newswire (normally $195), including one complimentary Web ReleasePLUS (this is an online press release), and one complimentary microlist (value up to $590

Time frame: November 19 to January 27, 2010 at 11:59 pm PST.

Who should apply? Entrepreneurs with seed to early-stage startups across technology. This means you can launch at the event. Or you can be a company that's received no more than an A round and is no more than three years old.

What should you submit? Submissions are in the form of a Vator company profile. We encourage video as it gives us a better sense of who’s behind the company. But you don’t need one. If you win, we’ll take one of you on stage.

By mid-January, top 20 vote-getters will be required to submit a deck or executive summary in order for Vator judges to cast their votes and validate who gets onstage.

How do you submit?

Already on Vator? Just click the "participate in this competition" button on the top right of this competition page.

Not yet on Vator? It's quick, easy and free. First register. Then create a profile for your company. The more comprehensive your company profile is, the more likely to get votes, ratings and be reviewed. Once you create your company profile, then just click the "participate in this competition" button on the top right of this competition page.

How to win?

Get out the vote on Vator! More votes on Vator will drive up your chances of winning. The popular vote on Vator will have a significant weighting and as such will be a significant part of the judging process. The criteria the judges will use include: Novelty/Innovation; Commercial viability and media presence. Companies with a larger follower base and solid testimonies will also grab our attention.

The judges are encouraged to only look at the 20 top vote-getters. So, if you're in the top 20, you have a better chance of getting onstage. If you're in the top five, it's hard not to let you onstage. Judges will look at 1) innovation 2) Market potential 3) Team. The judges will take points away if you do not provide enough information for them to rate.

Get out the vote by using the hash tag #vatorsplash in your Vator and Twitter posts. Posting "VatorSplash or Vator Splash" in your updates is also OK.

To win a free ticket!

1) Participants with more than 100 popular votes get one free ticket to the event and after-party.

2) Anyone who votes will be entered into a lottery to win a free ticket. Vator will give five tickets away to voters.

- Does this product/service solve a clear market problem?
- Is it a new and novel approach to solve a problem?
- Is there enough differentiation that gives this idea a fighting chance against competitors?

Market potential

- Is the market a big macro opportunity?
- Does this startup have a clear market niche and user group?
- Did they indicate clearly their go-to-market strategy to attract users?
- Did they clearly articulate their business model?
- Did they demonstrate how they will compete effectively?
- Is this business a venture-backed opportunity or a life-style business?

Team

- Is the team relevant to the opportunity?
- Does the team have the expertise to succeed?
- Is the team clear about the objectives?
- Can the team convey the opportunity?

Brian joined Venrock in 1998 as a Kauffman Fellow, after holding senior marketing and product marketing positions at Intuit, Inc. He had responsibility for launching several versions of the market-leading software product Quicken and the Quicken.com website. The job led to a passion for the user experience for Brian, one that he continually applies to consumer ventures. He also brings strategic consulting knowledge gained at the Monitor Group and investment banking experience from Robertson, Stephens & Company to his portfolio companies. Brian earned a BA degree, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Patrick Chung is co-head of NEA’s Seed-stage investing practice and founding partner of NEA and Harvard’s Experiment Fund (www.xfund.com). He is a director of 23andMe, Curalate, Euclid, Lytro, Pulse, and Recce, and is actively involved with Carezone, Fantasy Shopper, IFTTT, Rock Health, Tivli, and Zumper. Prior to joining NEA, Patrick helped to grow ZEFER, an Internet services firm (acquired by NEC) to more than $100 million in annual revenues and more than 700 people across six global offices. Prior to ZEFER, Patrick was with McKinsey & Company, where he specialized in hardware, software, and services companies. Patrick received a joint JD-MBA degree from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, where he served as an Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Patrick was a Commonwealth Scholar at Oxford University, where he earned a Master of Science degree. Patrick earned his A.B. degree at Harvard University in Environmental Science. He is a member of the New York and Massachusetts bars, and a member of the Committee to Visit Harvard College.

My transactional activities are performed as a partner with Ackrell Capital a boutique investment bank.

In addition to financial advisory, I have a research and consulting firm called STRATEGYfx. STRATEGYfx is the venue for my commentary and analysis on emerging businesses.

The primary syndication/publishing partners for this commentary are Vator.tv where I co-host a show and am a contributing editor and AlwaysOn where I'm also a contributing editor, selection committee member for their top 100 lists and a conference emcee.

Dana Settle is Partner with Greycroft LLC, and she heads the firm's west coast office.Prior to joining Greycroft, Dana spent several years as a venture capitalist and advisor to startup companies in the Bay Area, including six years at Mayfield, where she focused on early stage companies in the mobile communications and consumer Internet markets.

Dana currently serves or observes on the boards of Greycroft’s investments in K2 Networks, MoVoxx, Sometrics, Sportgenic, United Sample, Vuze and WideOrbit. She also managed the firm’s investments in Digisynd (sold to Disney) and ContentNext (sold to Guardian Media). Dana previously invested in and advised several companies, including Inphi, MobileStar (sold to TMobile), Revenue Science, Trigo (sold to IBM) and Truveo (sold to AOL).Dana's additional experience includes investment banking at Lehman Brothers in the media and communications group and international business development at McCaw Cellular Communications.

Dana holds a BA in Finance and International Studies from the University of Washington and an MBA from Harvard Business School.